Rufinatscha Symphony No.3

[Alan Howe]

Thank you for the information, Dr Gratl. We are certainly looking forward to hearing the CD!

[Alan Howe]

I should add that the Tyrolean State Museum Shop website is currently under construction - hence the need in the first instance to contact Dr Gratl's colleague Silvia Eller by email if you are interested in purchasing the new CD.

[Alan Howe]

My copy of the CD arrived today and I've been playing the Symphony all afternoon. It's a big piece (47+ mins.) and quite different in feel from the symphonies in B minor (4, previously 5) and D major (5, previously 6) which came after it. This may have something to do with the reconstruction work done by Michael Huber (which includes some very daring-sounding writing for brass), although it is clearly intended to be a more dramatic, even strident-sounding piece than its successors. So now we have a truly original trio of works: No.3 in C minor (could be titled 'Dramatic'), No.4 in B minor (could be titled 'Elegiac') and No.5 in D major (could be titled 'The Great D major').
I can't think of anything like these three great symphonies - each one so different from the other two - except to say that they breath the same (Austrian) air as Bruckner. As for No.3 in particular, it's an extraordinary work for 1846, i.e. considering Bruckner 1 was still twenty years in the future. If Bruckner was a one-off, so too was Rufinatscha in the generation before him. I await other opinions with keen interest...

[eschiss1]

From what this sounds like, I can hope that some other widely (relatively...)-distributed label (... cpo?) will eventually consider recording his surviving chamber and orchestral (and other) music (on separately-available CDs and/or downloads, if it please them , for their advantage and that of prospective musiclovers and radio/TV/whatever outlets etc., libraries, whathave. (Our local library has some cpo discs in some of their rather good multiseries of unusual music, but rarely their entire 6-odd-CD sets, e.g.))

[Mark Thomas]

I can hardly wait for my copy to arrive. Rufinatscha has been such a revelation.  A true Unsung great.

[Alan Howe]

I should explain that the new recording is very much HIP-influenced, with a small-ish body of strings playing without a lot of vibrato. This, to my mind, increases the stridency of an already decidedly dramatic piece, especially in the first and last movements, and makes the third movement scherzo sound very rustic indeed. While appreciating greatly the (very real) achievement of the orchestra here, I'd now like to hear a full symphony orchestra take on the work...

[Alan Howe]

The CD is now available online at half price (EUR 9 instead of EUR 18):
http://shop.tiroler-landesmuseen.at/cd-dvd/musikmuseum/musikmuseum21.html

[DennisS]

Have just placed my order! Looking forward to receiving it as soon as possible. It would be nice to receive it before Christmas but if it doesn't arrive before Christmas  it will be a lovely treat after the festivities!

[Alan Howe]

Great. We'll look forward to your assessment, Dennis.

[Martin Eastick]

Have also just placed my order! One disappointment though having spent some time going through the Tiroler Landsmuseum site, is that the CD's of chamber music by Rufinatscha (as well as many other titles) that were listed on their old site, have now disappeared. Of particular note was the recording of the piano quartets, which I found to be most rewarding. Also, only one of the two Netzer symphonies volumes appears to be still available?

[Alan Howe]

It's a shame, of course. However, we must remember that we're not dealing with a major recording label here, but what is essentially a cottage industry, albeit an important one, initiated by scholars at the Innsbruck museum. I assume that only small numbers of the CDs were manufactured in the first place.

[djarvie]

The chamber music CDs, including the piano quartets, were still available in Innsbruck in July.   I see that Records International still offers them for sale, also the two volumes of Netzer symphonies.
https://www.recordsinternational.com/cd.php?cd=06M046

[eschiss1]

Records International offers things on an as-available basis, though- they're a distributor/whathave - listing there isn't guarantee of existence, unless I'm mistaken. Though things are worth a try, and placement of an order there would help both of them out (I admit I've only bought one or two items from RI myself so far, if memory serves- requested and received as gifts to be more specific...)

[Wheesht]

When I visited the museum shop in mid September, all the Klingende Kostbarkeiten and the other CDs were still in stock as far as I remember, so the ones that appear to be missing now may simply not have made it to the new website (yet, one hopes) for some reason. I too couldn't resist placing my order for the new Rufinatscha disc and have added the Symphonic Works by Tschiderer for good measure ( and for half price )

[MusFerd]

Dear Wheesht, you are right, my colleagues are working hard to update our webshop, which means that in the end all our CDs should be included. We are sorry -  not only our shop, but the whole website is under construction at the moment.